Xeng Empire

The Xeng Empire is a vast civilization covering almost the entire Shuang region. Founded by the Frost Elf Daji, the Xeng Empire is inhabited by descendants of the ancient elf Chun. The regions in between and outside the cities in Xeng are called the Nomad Wilds, where the Shuang Nomads live. While beginning as a highly militaristic expansionist empire, they eventually stabilized in size around the Renaissance Era as other rival civilizations developed from beyond the mountains surrounding Shuang. They are known for being very bold for the ability to colonize the unpleasant, almost inhospitable lands that surround their empire.

The capital is Yang Bao. Home to the Emperor himself, it is a fortified city rumored to be impenetrable.

Conquered nations in Xeng

The Xeng Empire has conquered much of Shuang, assimilating many nations. Said nations were originally organized into city-states, consisting of a single urban establishment and some surrounding landing.

• Shui - A seaside nation home to a massive armada.
• Dailu - A nation in the southwestern mountains, which serves as the border gate leading into Xeng.
• Greyfall - A nation where most of its wealth is derived from minerals.
• Froststream - A nation with a capital built around a river basin heated by geothermal vents. It is located in a pleasantly temperate region.
• Briskwind - Briskwind is located in the Sen Forest.
• Ghadi - An isolated city only reachable by air.

Government

The Xeng Empire is a technocracy. The ruling class consists of those who are proficient in magitek and military tactics. They serve as the councilors to the Emperor who is responsible for mandating the balance between them.

A hierarchy system is present. Xeng laws are strict and rigid with little freedoms for the people, but the Xeng Empire has no slaves. Instead, the lowest class consists of those who have fallen into debt and must work to pay it off in the form of labor. From there, farmers and merchants consist of the middle class. They can ascend to a position of power in the government if they are the owner of a guild or a large business.

Culture

Names

Xengese names usually consist of one name that describes a certain trait. Higher ranking individuals such as emperors have two names.

Typical life

The Xeng Empire is an industrial society. Thus, most Xengese spend their lives working as paid laborers either by operating machinery or by farming. Those that manage to earn enough money often pursue careers in science and technological development, seeking positions of power.

Entertainment

A popular sport involves skating on ice and using special magical devices to guide a small, spherical clockwork automaton into the opposing team's goal.

Art

Ice sculpting is an extremely popular form of art. Because of the climate of Shuang, the ice is as hard as stone. Sculptures will remain stable year-round as the temperature never rises above melting point except in Sen Forest.

Food

Hot meals are extremely popular, such as roasted mammoth hide.

Magic

The Xengese tolerate the use of magic to operate machines because it provides the foundation of their society. They are against hexing and enchantments, seeing it as a form of witchcraft - evil magic according to their interpretation. Reanimating the undead or depicting them in some explicit way is considered blasphemy. Those found guilty of deliberately using witchcraft are stripped of their belongings and thrown out into the wilds where they would succumb to the elements which in their belief denies them of the afterlife.

Death customs

Cremation is preferred when it comes to disposal of the dead. It is considered a bad omen for a corpse to be left out as it is believed that if a body is left frozen, it will never move onto the afterlife.

Philosophy

The Xeng Empire is a strong advocate for acknowledging the power of mortals over the gods. They consider it irrational to worship the gods as they believe the Old Pantheon was responsible for nearly destroying the world thousands of years ago. Instead, they favor spiritual meditation in order to achieve harmony and balance in the world, and that one should show reverence and respect to those that have achieved true balance between mind, body and soul.

Despite their early history as conquerors, the Xengese Empire has chosen not to expand beyond Shuang favoring the concept that balance can be preserved through the presence of numerous isolated states that are not strong enough to dominate the other, increasing or decreasing in power only to maintain balance. In times of stagnant peace, war must be fought to stir diversity, but in times of unending bloodshed, truce must be forged to prevent mortalkind from destroying one another. As a result, Xeng tends to be highly secretive and isolationist, only trading with the outside as they see fit.

Magic is also central to their culture. However, the Xeng believe it should only be used for technology, rather than hexing. They believe that hexing and spellcasting in general is evil and the work of tyrannical gods. The Shuang Nomads think otherwise resulting in tension between the two.

Military

The Xeng Navy is a fearsome force. Ships are designed as a gunboats: archers will fire volleys of arrows assisted by cannons. However, the most reckoning force is Xeng Army. They are not so much built to invade others since the Xeng Empire has almost the entire region of Shuang to themselves, but they are more focused on defending their cities from barbarians and other possible invaders.

The expanse of the ice desert gives them protection, but Xeng nonetheless constantly builds up its armies. When a male Frost Elf turns age 18, they are enlisted and trained to be part of the Xeng Armed Forces.

Technology

Xeng technology shows remarkable prowess in engineering combining both magic and technology. They can create aqueducts that channel water throughout different city-states, and some of their water-powered cities show off what they are capable of.

Weapons

One of their forms of weaponry that gave them an edge to other developing civilizations contemporary to their early periods were large cannons which fired gunpowder dragon rockets. These rockets gave them a major tactical advantage against others who are not well-versed in long range combat. The dragon rockets are missile projectiles known for their deadly accuracy as they are enchanted with spells that allow them to home in on targets. They are often fired from cannons in defensive positions, but smaller scale versions are sometimes used for assassination.

Metallurgy

The techniques to forging mithril were discovered at Crucible Mountain. They have since become the standard metal to use in the forging of weapons and armor.

Clockwork

Clocks allow citizens of the Xeng Empire to precisely keep track of time. Clockwork is often powered by either magitek or by water wheels. Clockwork toys such as trains and wind-up toy automatons are popular among children.

Monorails

To cross the vast expanses of ice, the Xeng Empire constructed a series of steam-based monorails paving the way for a transportation revolution. These monorails were developed around the same time as Polvora's railroads in the Amacata Desert, but it is unclear who invented what first. After the Volveros Revolution, trade with Eidyn significantly increased and the strange origin of the railways is likely due to poorly kept records of patents.

Population

It is difficult for races not naturally adept to the cold to live comfortably in the Xeng Empire. Thus, the overwhelming majority of Xeng's population are Frost Elves and the occasional Snow Elf immigrant from Khyorgan. Naturally, many Xengese know little of outsiders or "Men Beyond the Mountains" as they call them.

As the Xeng Empire has been extremely successful when it comes to providing food, the total population of all city-states has reached 130 million. At the current rate of population growth, the Xeng Empire will face overpopulation problems within the next few decades.

Conflicts

The Xeng Empire has had a long history of conflicts during its 2,000 years of existence and has gone through many regimes and reigns.

It has had many civil wars between city-states, but the most important of all of them was the Unification War of Xeng, which created an overarching government for the entire Xeng Empire. Currently, Xeng is on the brink of conflict with the Shuang Nomads because of their differing ideologies.

History

Pre-history

Before the Xeng Empire was created, Shuang was an inhospitable wasteland. Travelling from the south was a wandering chieftain named Chun who lived in the Ling Mountains along with the rest of his clan of elves. One day, he discovered one of the Aard'Vorn, the Flame Sigil which could be used to make Shuang more habitable. Life was brought to the region though the lands still remained a frozen tundra. To keep the Aard'Vorn safe, the Temple of Hozai was built around it. While his brethren ventured further into the icy lands, Chun stayed behind in the temple to become the Flame Sigil's guardian even in death.

Overtime, from being exposed to this new environment, these elves became the Frost Elves. From there, they continued to roam the land as the Shuang Nomads.

Era of Conquest

Centuries later, the Frost Elves started to have conflicts among themselves regarding Chun's wishes. They debated over how the Flame Sigil should be used. Some thought that the Flame Sigil could make Shuang an even more perfect land by altering the local climate, but there was concern that it could damage the rest of Erudite. While Chun's wishes were reaffirmed, it was clear that the fledgling Xeng Empire would not have an easy start from the modest resources available. Some of the local tribes continued searching for resources elsewhere throughout the land, eventually roaming as nomads.

Golden Era

The Xeng Empire thrived and expanded to what it is today, becoming a powerful, technologically advanced civilization. The Shuang Nomads on the other hand resorted to using their magicks and spellcasting, so that they could maintain their own tribal lifestyle. Eventually, he Xeng Empire stopped expanding, instead focusing on refining their lifestyle within their borders. Invaders were few and far between because of the climate and terrain although trade was still difficult.

The Spirit Dragon Yugo

The malevolent Spirit Dragon Yugo from Dragon Isle invaded the Xeng Empire in an attempt to devour all the other Spirit Dragons to reincarnate as the ancient dragon Shenlong.

Theft of the Flame Sigil

A devastating blow to the Xeng Empire was when the Kingdom of Leir stole the Flame Sigil during their campaign to secure all the Aard'Vorn for themselves. This left the land of Shuang to enter an eternal winter, and the Xeng Empire entered a period of hardship. Template:Frost Elves